Branded trailer knows your desires

CB Droege, 2nd June 2012

Roadside Attractions has released the first trailer for its upcoming dystopian thriller, Branded.

The film is a surrealist look at the way advertising has invaded our brain-space, and follows a protagonist who believes he sees monstrous forces which allow the corporate brands of our world to literally prey upon our minds.

The protagonist, Misha, played by Ed Stoppard, will have to try to unravel the mystery with only help of his girlfriend Abby, played by Leelee Sobieski - a talented and lovely actress, who has unfortunately not done anything really good since her 1999 role as Joan of Arc.

As part of the promotion for the film, the trailer, accompanying posters and other promo materials will contain gobs of QR codes for fans to scan with their communication devices. The codes redirect to the movie's website, which details more about the dystopian world in which Branded is set, offering "a deeper glimpse into the film's alternative universe of out-of-control brands, consumer gluttony and insatiable materialism through exclusive image and video content."

This one has kind of snuck up on us. It’s low budget from a small studio, and isn’t based on any existing IP, so it was impossible to know what to expect until the trailer dropped. Now that it has, it looks like the studio did a lot with few resources. The CGI in the trailer is clearly not at Transformers level, and looks a little dated, but one gets what one pays for, I suppose. Hopefully the story and characters are interesting enough to make up for it.